Maeglin's AU Ficlets: 7. The Unknown Swan

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7. The Unknown Swan

It was so easy to blend in with the tall, proud Men of Dol Amroth. Many were of a height with him, or nearly so, and shared his dark hair and pale face. It was good that he had not his mother's features, lest he be marked as an impostor, doubtless one of the 'lesser' Men, he thought wryly. But helmed and gauntleted, he appeared every inch a Swan Knight. It had been easy to procure the armor; he was, after all, a practiced thief.

Many Orcs and Easterlings fell to his sword. They were hardly a match for him, but that was not his concern. More troubling was the sight of the burning city. That was unbearable, so he kept his eyes towards Anduin as much as possible. Thus he saw the fell beast descend upon the King of the Fields, dooming horse and rider.

He approached as quickly and stealthily as chance allowed. A slender Rohir beheaded the fell beast, but there was no mistaking the one who rose from its death throes. One of the Ulairi - perhaps their Lord. Taller than my elder brother, he thought. The Ulair raised its mace to the one who had defied it. The woman faced her enemy bravely, as one of his younger brothers' wives had. And though that memory filled him with black rage, though the mace broke the lady's arm and her death was near, he did not break his measured stride, for these Ulairi were known to be the mightiest of Morgoth's servants left in the world save Sauron, and this opportunity would not come again.

The prideful Ulair made the mistake of taunting his prey, lifting her off the ground, slowly squeezing her throat as he hissed "Die now!"

A - child? - crept up behind the Ulair with a dagger, but Maglor stepped over him and sliced the wraith in two, diagonally from the shoulder to the waist. 'Deathless' or not, that would send this one to the Void.

It had been all too easy. But there were many enemies left on the field, and naught he could do for the woman and the - small Man, whatever he was, so the Kinslayer turned back to the battle.

Try as they might, Imrahil and Aragorn, Eomer, and later Eowyn and Merry could none of them ever discover which of the Swan Knights had done the great deed. The Swans did not lie, and none who had survived the Pelennor claimed to have killed the Witch-King, so the Lords of Gondor and Rohan sadly concluded that the hero had been killed later in the battle. The Black Breath must have weakened him, they thought. In that, at least, they were correct, for the son of Feänor had had barely enough strength left to cast away the armor and vanish into the White Mountains, and afterwards lay ill for three days.

In the following year, the Men of Minas Tirith raised a monument to this hero and all the others who had done deeds similar in valor, if less in renown. The inscription read 'To the Unknown'.

This is a work of fan fiction, written because the author has an abiding love for the works of J R R Tolkien. The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of the Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Enterprises, and possibly New Line Cinema, except for certain original characters who belong to the author of the said work. The author will not receive any money or other remuneration for presenting the work on this archive site. The work is the intellectual property of the author, is available solely for the enjoyment of Henneth Annûn Story Archive readers, and may not be copied or redistributed by any means without the explicit written consent of the author.

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